Browse Encyclopedia

Jesse Truesdell Peck, the youngest of ten children of Luther Peck, was born on April 4, 1811 on a farm in Middlefield, Otsego County, New York. He was educated at Cazenovia Seminary and became a minister in the Methodist Church. He married Persis...

On August 8, 1874, George Wesley Pedlow was born in Manistee, Michigan. He attended public schools in Upland, Pennsylvania and Dickinson Preparatory School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania before enrolling in the College proper. At Dickinson, he was a...

Richard Alexander Fullerton Penrose was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, the second son of Charles and Valeria Fullerton Biddle Penrose on March 24, 1827; his elder brother was William McFunn Penrose. He was educated at the local Dickinson Grammar...

William McFunn Penrose, the eldest son of Charles Bingham and Valeria Fullerton Biddle Penrose, was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania on March 29, 1825; Richard Alexander Fullerton Penrose was his younger brother. Their father was a well-known...

The Pflaum Lectures in History are supported by income from a fund contributed to by students and friends of the late Professor John C. Pflaum in appreciation of his effective teaching. The lectures bring to campus scholars who, like Professor...

John Christian Pflaum was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on May 13, 1903. After graduating from high school in 1921, Pflaum earned both his bachelor’s degree in economics (1925) and his master’s degree in history (1929) from the University of...

Phi Alpha Pi was a local sorority founded at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1898. It is said that an earlier chapter of this sorority existed on the campus, but had “died a natural death from want of support.” In any case, the...

The honorary fraternity of Phi Beta Kappa was organized as a student literary society at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, on December 5, 1776. Although the approach of General Cornwallis forced William and Mary to close...

When officially named in the 1980s in honor of J. William Stuart, class of 1932, this house had already enjoyed fifty years of service to Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. A need for more living space led Dickinson’s chapter of Phi...

Phi Kappa Delta was a local fraternity founded at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1913. Little is actually known about the organization, but it appears that it drew its members from both the College and the Dickinson Law School....

On April 2, 1904, the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania purchased a house at 228 West High Street, immediately west of the President's House. The three-story brick house had been built around the time of the...

The Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania purchased the former home of John Lindner at 28 North College Street in 1923. Three years later the exterior of the building was renovated: a colonial-style doorway was...

The Phi Nu Theta fraternity became the first Greek organization in the history of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Also known as the Eclectic Fraternity, this organization was founded on May 12, 1852, and consisted of Professor Herman...

Pi Delta Phi is a national honorary for students who have earned scholastic honors in French. The chapter at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania selects its members from the junior and senior classes, and was founded in 1962.

Ralph Pierce was born in Franklin County, New York at the town of Moira on April 11, 1827. He was the son of Methodist preacher Hiram Pierce and his wife, Sarah Pierce. The younger Pierce prepared for college locally and enrolled at Dickinson...

Though never an employee of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Noah Pinkney was one of its most famous names for forty years. Known to Dickinson students as "Pink" or "Uncle Noah" for all of that time, Pinckney was born a slave in...

Arthur Platt was born on July 14, 1907 on the island of Luzon in the Philippines, where his parents were medical missionaries. He attended the Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts and graduated in 1924. He went on to Trinity College were he...

Esther Popel was born on July 16, 1896 to Joseph Gibbs and Helen King Anderson Popel of Harrisburg, PA. Esther had an older sister, Helen, and a younger brother, Samuel. The 1900 census indicates that her father was a letter carrier and the...

George Latimer Potter was born into a distinguished Revolutionary family at Potter's Mills in what is now Centre County, Pennsylvania on June 13, 1795. He was one of seven siblings, including his elder brother, William Potter. He entered...